Smart Card 3rd Annual Payments Summit, an event featuring the contactless payment phenomenon becoming more popular in the world’s leading banks, took place February 23rd – 25th in Salt Lake City.

The Smart Card Alliance is working to enhance a broader understanding, adoption and use of smart card technology. Participants at the February Summit covered an array of issues concerning contactless payments in transit systems, mobile payments and retailers. With EMV implementation as their primary concern, they looked at the numbers and considered future plans for expansion.

UK’s Barclaycard is now allowing customers to pay for greater value items with their contactless credit and debit cards, bumping the limit up from £10 to £15 per purchase, according to which4u.co.uk.

Barclaycard hopes that the increased spending range will encourage more retailers to implement the technology.

After first promising its citizens biometric passports in 2008, the Canadian government has promised to move the program back into items they intend to deliver to its citizens. The announcement came during a throne speech on March 3 that discussed multiple items that had been promised to be included in the federal 2008 budget, but were cut for various reasons.

Originally, the biometric passport was tabled due to worries over implementation costs and logistics as well as questions surrounding its proposed ten year validation span. While those behind the push for bringing the project back are interested in what the technology can do to improve national security, some politicians are still questioning if biometrics are accurate enough and if privacy concerns are being considered enough in the implementation of the project.

South Africa is putting on hold indefinitely its smart card ID project, according to itweb.co.za.

Home Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma stated that her department has run out of money after reallocating R114 million meant for the project to “other things,” ITWeb reports.

A new smart card based fare system is in the works for the Saten Island Railway (SIR), according to silive.com.

The MTA has already installed new turnstiles at the Tompkinsville and Grasmere stations, and plans to finish the transition to contactless payment within the next few years.

ClearCube Technology has announced the launch of its I9424 PCoIP zero client with integrated smart card reader.

The ClearCube I9424 is a single client that enables smart card access to protected resources for task and knowledge workers.

Abu Dhabi: There is no immediate plan to deny any government services — especially to expatriates — for not having identity cards, Major General Ahmad Nasser Al Raisi, General Manager of Central Operations at the Abu Dhabi Police Headquarters and the head of the Executive Committee of EIDA, said.

As Gulf News reported earlier, all Emiratis had to obtain an ID card by April 1, 2009, which was mandatory to access government services. Although all government departments have not followed it strictly, some such as Dubai Courts have made the ID card mandatory for Emiratis to access its services.

UberGizmo (blog

[SXSW] Juanio 2.0 is available now in the Apple App Store, the revamped version of theaugmented reality browser offers new features such as indoor usage, ...

Starwood Hotels & Resorts announced a Smart Check-In program at its Aloft Hotels that enables guests to skip the front desk at check-in and head directly to their rooms.

Guests who opt to participate are issued an enhanced Starwood Preferred Guest / Aloft-branded RFID keycard to be used for room access. On the day of a planned arrival, a text message is sent to the guest’s mobile phone with their room’s number.

CenTrak, provider of real time location systems used for tracking equipment, patients and staff, announced the release of its new hand hygiene compliance system.

Battery powered monitors can be mounted to any dispenser, canister, pump, or sink to track usage. The system automatically captures a caregiver’s badge ID upon entry and and exit from patient care areas along with hand hygiene events, based on specific hospital compliance regulations.

There are two sides to every story. In the world of M2M (machine-to-machine) technology, it’s the business side and the consumer side. On the debut of the Peggy Smedley radio show this week—formerly the M2M Radio Show—two sides of energy management were examined in depth.

UK Payments, a service company providing people, facilities and expertise to the UK Payments Industry, has declared contactless payment a “secure option” for cashless transaction, according to squidcard.com.

A rep from UK Payments recently explained that contactless payment cards are set up so that if any fraudulent activity takes place, authorities will know about it and be able to take the necessary preventative measures.

Calgary has announced plans to implement a smart card payment system for public transportation by 2012, according to the Calgary Herald. Senior transit planner Neil McKendrick announced that the new system will be modeled after the popular Oyster Card scheme in London.

Later this year Calgary will begin the search for companies to begin work on the projected $7 million project. Calgary transit hopes the new system will encourage wider use of public transportation while curbing fare evasion.

Denver has started implementing solar-powered “Smart Meters” that accept contactless payment, according to the Denver Post. Installations began in February and will continue through May. Denver will install approximately 4,500 of the new meters, comprising 85% of the city’s total.

Along with prepaid smart cards, the new meters will accept credit cards, debit cards and cash.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has granted Google the right to buy and resell electricity, fulfilling Google's December request. Google has said it isn't sure what it will do with its newfound authority. Methinks they know exactly what they're going to do with it; they're just being coy.

These days, people expect the convenience of paying by credit card to be available everywhere. Apriva,www.apriva.com, Scottsdale, Ariz., has introduced two wireless POS (point-of-sale) solutions designed to serve the needs of mobile merchants. AprivaPay is a browser-based application that allows businesses to directly process credit card transactions through Web-enabled mobile phones.

AprivaPay Professional is a smartphone application that enables merchants to seamlessly transform their devices into credit card processing terminals. Both solutions are shipping and are available immediately through the company’s national network of distribution partners.

Bill Clark, executive vice president, North America, Apriva’s POS division, says, “Customers expect to pay for purchases in the method most convenient for them, regardless if they are in a store, at home, or at a remote site. More often than not, this translates into card-based payments. Our latest solutions allow mobile merchants to improve efficiency, reduce operating costs, and enhance customer service.”

 A privacy watchdog group complained to federal regulators on Tuesday about Google's new Buzz social networking service, saying it violates federal consumer protection law. 

Databac has announced that it will will be demonstrating a range of contactless and biometric solutions for access control, time & attendance, logical access and asset management at the Salón Internacional de la Seguridad, March 2-5 in Madrid.

Among these will be Databac’s line of UHF Gen2 cards, boasting a read range of more than three meters, and the company’s slimline “vandal-proof” 125Khz / 13.56Mhz RFID card/tag and biometric readers.

The LS3 by Boston Dynamics.

 

Boston Dynamics is developing the LS3 robot cargo carrier, based on their Big Dog project. Designed to carry 400lbs (181kg) and fuel for 24 hours of operation, while covering 20 miles and following a person using its vision system or navigating to a GPS location. LS3 stands for Legged Squad Support System, and looks a lot like a miniature Star Wars Walker. The first ‘walk’ is due in 2012 and is funded by DARPA and the US Marine Corpswith a $32 million 30-month contract.

The LS3 is based on the original Big Dog that has 4 articulated legs, with shock absorbers and energy recycling (a bit like a very high-tech Prius!). The Big Dog can crawl at 0.2ms-1, trot at 1.6ms-1 (3.5 mph), and run at 2ms-1 (4.4 mph). The Big Dog weighs about 109 kg (240 lbs), is about 1m (3’3”) tall, 1.1m (3’7”) long, and 0.3m (1’) wide.

For most restaurants, processing payments is relatively simple as it all takes place on premise. However when it comes to the mobile food service industry, which includes catering trucks that set up and close up shop in multiple locations each day, access to a network is considered a luxury.

One-terabyte (TB) solid state drives (SSDs) are expected to be released in a couple of years, and they will be about the size of the average postage stamp.

Gemalto announced the development of a new transport solution enabling commuters to use their mobile phones as e-tickets in MIFARE DESFire infrastructures.

DESFire is an automatic fare collection technology which provides 3DES (Triple Data Encryption Standard) and AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) cryptographic algorithms. To date, it has been deployed in 40 cities across the world.